The conversation this evening explores the Voices-of movement, highlighting its origins in Indi, the importance of community engagement in politics, and the success of independent candidates in representing local interests.Â
The speakers discuss community engagement, the role of independent candidates in local politics, and the importance of climate action, integrity, and gender equity.
Denis Ginnivan emphasises the need for listening to community voices and the relational aspect of political representation, showcasing how grassroots movements can empower communities and reshape political landscapes in Australia.
Kate Lockhart talks about her experiences and motivations for running in the Corangamite electorate, emphasising the power of grassroots movements and the need for transparency in political processes.
Both speakers highlight the significance of mobilising community support on the journey ahead in building momentum for change.
"Listening is more important than talking." At Ocean Grove Golf Club on 16 April 2025, Kate Lockhart gave a summary of where her election campaign is at - and that she is ranked first on the ballot paper.
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→ Here is a 13-minute video excerpt on Facebook
→ And here is the live streamed video from the event - duration: one hour
(This video will be automatically deleted by Facebook on 16 May 2025)
TRANSCRIPT OF 13-MINUTE VIDEO EXCERPT
Kate Lockhart:
Integrity. Well, just what we said about work with the Labor Party not acting on their mandate and not delivering to what the middle Australia really wants to do.
And the donations around campaigning. I just think it's obscene that you can't tell me what someone has donated to your campaign.
I can tell you: It comes into one bank account, it's listed, you can print it out. It's very easy to be transparent about those sorts of things, and the lack of transparency I think is scandalous and I think it is corrupting us. I mean, I think we can do better.
And fact-based decision-making. Again, I just think is... Well, that's what I've been trained in, is to study the development, look at the evidence and make it a sound decision that does good for the majority or for those that really do need it.
Loretta Hart:
Thank you. Kate, I'm thinking about how you get to represent the community of Corangamite. It's a vast community. You know, we have different ideas. We have conflicting ideas at times. And you're talking about, you're going within an integrity and understanding our local constituents. So can you talk about how you will do the business of politics? How do you endeavour to represent this vast community and how do you do it with integrity?
Kate: (at 01:49)
I think it's about, one is about turning up like I've been to every candidate forum, even if I wasn't first invited, I still turned up. And so being present and being available on the streets, in the markets, turning up at park, running orange t-shirt, they're all opportunities for people to have a conversation with you. And I think it's just about being open. I think you can learn a lot from a simple conversation.
And so, yeah, listening all the new talk, I actually really enjoy being on the campaign trail. And I really, really enjoy it when I assume that a person coming towards me is going to have a conversation with me that is going to go a certain way. It doesn't. You you learn something really interesting, really important about them.
I always find that really interesting. People are interesting if you give them the time to tell their story. So, being available is important.
Loretta:
How do you do that with integrity in Canberra, that business of politics? And I know you haven't been there yet and done it yet, but I'm sure you're imagining. And I think you've got good examples of maybe how that happens.
Kate:
Well, I think that's about the value of the Voices, right? Like it's not just me, there's a group of us working really hard to pull together policies and be present and be available. And so you just amplify and broaden or escalate that.
We're still just going to have the conversations and you've got to be transparent about your policies.
Yeah, so I want to take a decision. All of the decisions that have been made in the last six weeks, they've been done by consensus. And again, I think what you're talking about before, Janice, about tapping into people's skill sets. You know, it's been a process of learning where people's skills are, where their talents are, and what they can contribute and trusting that.
They'll give you their honest opinion from their wealth of knowledge as well. I don't think any one person has all the answers and so I think it's important to have that committee or that group that is feeding ideas and reflecting perspectives. So you don't do it alone.
Loretta: (at 04:40)
I've got two more questions and there might be some questions from the audience as well. Maybe Denis might even throw a question in for you. What does success look like in this campaign?
Kate:
Well, we're here! We've got our own t-shirts. We've just printed the second batch of 20,000 flyers. So that's 40,000 flyers to get across almost 100,000 voters. So there's success. We've nominated. We're on top of the ballot paper. Oh my goodness.
Denis:
So is Kathy.
Kate:
I know, don't worry, I know! So they're all points of success, having these conversations, putting in the media releases, putting out the posters, having the posters damaged in recent times and then having a community group saying, who did this? why did they do that? Are you worried about her? You know, having people speak for you and stand up for you.
Loretta (at 05:54)
In a deep breath. So actually my last question is what do you need from the community? What is it that for those of us who are watching and listening have a friend or a neighbor who might be interested like what is it that you need? Because this is not a person running this. This is a community. We all want change. So how can we help?
Kate:
You've got to do those conversations, right? Like, this secret squirrel stuff about Australian politics and who you vote for... I think: just have the conversations! Holden and Ford used to go around Bathurst, didn't they? For three quarters of a century they went around and they were the only cars that could win. But how many people drive Holden and Ford now? Not that many! People can change.
And I think that's a simple anecdote, but I actually think it's an important anecdote that's being open to having the conversation and considering who you vote for, that maybe it's not just... maybe it doesn't need to be a thoughtless act. We do have the privilege of having a genuine democracy where we do have to vote and a genuine responsibility that will stop us from ever really becoming America. And I think that's incredibly important.
And so, yeah, have the conversations, but absolutely sign up, volunteer, donate, get a fence poster, distribute flyers, buy a t-shirt, but really have the conversations. And have the conversations with some people who you think you might be able have a conversation with, or maybe get them to think about another generation, either above them or below them, to think about what sort of life are they having, and is it as good as you in the middle zone? So I hope that answers the question.
Loretta (at 08:03)
Do we have any questions from our audience - or Denis, do you have a question?
Denis Ginnivan:
I think we've got a more observation about the power of the community in all of this too because you start out thinking, well, it's the candidate, it's their job and what can we do to help? But over time, the more that confidence builds, the more individual people in the community feel, this is just my responsibility as much as the candidate's. And in a way, there's a bit of a compact that comes with the territory, with the independents, community independents and the community itself.
But I was going to very quickly say that Helen Haynes, so I know this directly because in one election a while ago, the National Party, the Senator was up that way, was making sort of promises about, if you vote for us, we'll give you the money for the whatever, hospital, a sports park or whatever. And it just all looked like, you're using our taxes to make these promises, and thus, you're sort of saying we're only gonna get this stuff if we vote for you. So it became... Really, people, including myself, got really cranky about this whole thing. And both Kathy McGowan and Helen Hayes picked it up as a serious issue of getting into incumity and corruption.
Anyway, bottom line is that whole new integrity commission has been, I would say has been carried forward by Kathy and then Helen, Helen in particular, through the Morrison government's time. She'd stand up and say, 'Mr. Morrison, it's 413 days since you said you're gonna establish a corruption commission. How's things going? And so I said, you don't tell me, I'll make the same statement tomorrow.' But she has persisted. And she drew her energy from the people from our own community. So I'm not suggesting it's all going to be inside of a campaign strategy, that's where they got the determined and the mandate to take it forward. And Helen persisted, like a terrier, and now, at at the 2022 election, Labor decided to wedge or take an alternate position on this, and they decided to put in an integrity commission if they got elected, and they did.
So the independent, without any party, both the big parties initially for all that time, they didn't want one. They weren't gonna do it unless there was some opportunity to kind of attach it to an intellectual strategy for themselves. So I'm just saying that that integrity commission is there because the community put the heat on their representatives who took it seriously and went away and persisted. So it's a compact is really what I'm saying.
The community has power. And I'm just using it as an example. One example where you can sort of see that all those things joining up quite simply. I hope I haven't overdone it, but there it is.
Loretta:
Any other questions?
Kate:
Well, thanks for coming tonight. I'm very grateful to the work that you're all doing and taking the time tonight as well to watch that film. I always find this film pretty intense, but it's awesome as well. We might be, you know, back at the start of our journey and our pathway might be longer than we all want it to be. But it's really important that we've got started. And I think that we will have plenty to celebrate come May 3. We've got a lot of work to do between now and then. But we'll have plenty to celebrate. So thank you for coming. And so to that end, we think we'll have a barbecue at the Barwon Heads Park on Monday the 21st of April at 12 noon. So come along in your orange t-shirts, we'll get a photo. We might do a poll on what animal we have [as our logo in 2028]. Look forward to seeing you then. Thanks for coming.
TRANSCRIPT OF KATE'S Q&A WITH LORETTA HART
Loretta:
Thank you. Thank you. Bring your chair up. Just one over there. And then you and Kate can sit in the camera eye. How's that sound? So we have a fantastic opportunity to hear that macro picture - or see that macro picture - and hear the stories of that. We're to take a moment to bring down the microphone.
For those who are joining us on Facebook, we're sitting here in the Ocean Grove Golf Club. And this is an opportunity for us to get to meet the Voices of Corangamite community independent candidate, Kate Lockhart. And we see where things have come from, and now we're coming to you.
Kate, can we start with who are you? I know there's people in the room that know you. There's people maybe you're watching don't know you as well. Who are you and why are you running? Can we start with that?
Kate Lockhart:
Sure. So I'm Kate Lockhart. I've been on the Bellarine for 20 years. My 18-year-old, I tell this story about coming down very pregnant and my 18-year-old is now off at Deakin University studying and teaching. So that's... It's exciting to see the next generation move on, and I've got to say, I'm very proud but I'm also tad envious because... I very much enjoyed my university days.
I did agricultural science up in Melbourne and as a country girl, you know, I knew my best chance to get to the big smoke was to study and so I thoroughly enjoyed that. And then subsequently I have traveled a bit. I was a volunteer in Thailand and then for a year or so, I've also travelled to the Netherlands, and worked over there, and in China for a year - with family.
And I tell that story because at every point it was an opportunity to appreciate what it was to be Australian when you travel overseas, but also understand what Australia's role is and place is in the world. And I guess kind of the pride that I always had as an Australian being fairly well received as being tolerant and accepting and curious and I think they're qualities that are meritorious I guess and that I feel like I was saying last night at the candidate forum I feel like the Sunnix dentistry has lost their way in terms of being a proud small player on the global stage and I think that's something that would be good to somehow reemerge.
I think part of that, we've lost part of that narrative because we've been, we've lost our way on climate and climate action, you know. So that's a bit of a digression, I've got to say. But the other thing I needed to say, so my posters, you might've seen them, are Scientist - Mum - Independent. so absolutely being an agricultural scientist, I've got a good scientific brain, but also the capacity to balance the books as well and run a small business and appreciate the spending money wisely.
And I think that capacity as an egg scientist to translate and facilitate and interpret between parties has always been one of my strengths. We spoke earlier about having worked with the BFF and it was a classic of the farmers wanting to talk, trying to convince the bureaucrats or the politicians that something needed to be done. I have capacity to be a translator, be a collaborator, I think is something that I would like to bring to this being in this role as a Community Independent.
Loretta:
I think that's why you're running.
Kate:
Well, there's a couple of these three main reasons.
In 2023, there was some people - my girlfriends - nominated me to a Geelong women in community life award, which I won in climate action. And I was up against some very good women who are now very generous supporters of past campaigns and this campaign. So I sort of, the role, the theme at U4 International Women's Day was step up and step forward. And I've just had that moment of going, well,
You know, things aren't quite the way I want them to be for my children or for my parents as well, for my mother. so maybe I do have a voice, maybe I do have the capacity to articulate other people's views and maybe I do have a responsibility then to do that. And so then I put myself forward for this Women Leading Locally Fellowship, which was for women who were community leaders to stand for local council. And that was in part run by Ruth McGowan and Alicia Heath up in Sydney as well. And so that was a fabulous training ground on how to stand for local council. And I was deeply disappointed as people in the room know to stand in North Bellarine as a good community contributor over a long period of time to be kind of blindsided by recent retiree who was a member of the Liberal Party.
There's no denying that the fact that that was his, that's how he got in and he's done very little for the local community. And I just, was kind of the first time I really reflected on.
Someone suggested, in fact it was Peter that suggested, that, 'that's democracy'. And I went, 'No, I don't think that was democracy. I think that was patriarchy.' I don't think that was the same. I don't think I was held to the same level as you were. I think I was expected to be twice as good and then some and people still didn't vote for me.
And so I found that really disappointing. then the swing, this is taking a long answer. And the swing to the right that we saw in our local council is mortifying. They're unconsolidated. They really don't seem to care about anyone except the group that have a blue tie and they're just in a suit of a certain age, know, they're pulling out aged care services. And so then we saw what was happening in America.
And just as the months rolled on, it just became more and more apparent that we were potentially on the precipice of something really not very palatable. And so then I connected with the voices and tried to put forward some brighter, smarter, younger women who I thought would be really capable. But it was a redistribution of the ward of the electorate across to the Bellarine that gonna jump for you.
Some of the western part of Corangamite went to Wannan and so then it made me think about and I think the Voices too reflect upon perhaps you know maybe a Bellarine based candidate might be a reasonable option so here we are. It was long-winded but I think it was really interesting to hear that journey that you've been on
Loretta:
So Kate, some of the central tenets around the community independent movement around strong stance on climate action, integrity and equality. What does that mean for Corangamite? What does one of those, how are they going to play out if you were successful in Corangamite?
So I just want to back the tenants that I ran on local council level and I think that was just intuitive. I don't quite know where those three tenants came from. Perhaps it was just the whole independents movement at a central level anyway. And so it was no big step to be running on those tenants again. Well climate action, we're a coastal community you know. I haven't done the Google Maps but most of us live within what 15 kilometres of the ocean at any given point, even in Grovedale, maybe it's 20, but they wouldn't be that far from a major river. Climate change and climate consequences around storm surge and flooding, we've seen flooding in Geelong even in recent years. They're all impacts of climate and there's people in the electorate that literally cannot insure their houses now because they're only leaving on the sea level.
And so we do need to take action on climate, you know, it's it's might be inconvenient, I mean, alcohol is called an inconvenient truth. My goodness. One of the children was I took I think I was breastfeeding Alex at a presentation of alcohol. So that was 15 years ago. And so this inaction is most ridiculous. And we thought Label were going to do the right thing, but they're approving at a state level, they're approving extraction of the off off-ways and then talking about gas in Western Australia. so it just seems like there's split personality going on. There seems to be talk about what's the right thing to do and then they're doing the opposite when we're looking the other way. it's, it just becomes untenable, I think. So that's climate. Gender equity is really important to me. I've had the good fortune of being encouraged to get an education, play sport and have always really participated as a as a free person to do those things. But I see the housing and the job opportunities for women, older women as well, are diminishing.
Coming out of primary caring, those opportunities aren't the same. And so I do think that there's more work to be done, equalising opportunities for everybody and ensuring that we all get safe and secure housing at whatever stage of our life we are. Not just while we're useful but as potentially people see less value in us we still have a right to a safe home and a safe house and, you know, housing shortages affect women and children more than they do men just by the nature of all the other inequalities that go on with wages and job opportunities and access to work.
And I see it. I see little old women, you know, walking down the street, down the middle of the road, because there's not a footpath for them to get between where they live and the shops. And I just don't think that's OK. These women have done nothing wrong, except they outlive their husbands, care for their children, care for their parents. And we're not doing enough for them. So that's gender.
Integrity. Well, just what we said about work with the Labor Party not acting on their mandate and not delivering to what the middle Australia really wants to do... (Continues in the 13-minute video clip, transcript above)